Chris Campanioni was born in Manhattan and grew up in a very nineties New Jersey. The son of exiles from Cuba and Poland, Campanioni is a writer, multimedia artist, and instructor. He is a recipient of the International Latino Book Award for his debut novel, Going Down (Aignos, 2013); the Pushcart Prize for "Soft Opening" from his cross-genre collection Death of Art (C&R Press, 2016); and the 2013 Academy of American Poets College Prize.